When the premier Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) displayed signs of being scorched by the slowing economy with a poor placement scenario and lower salary offers, it was widely expected that the scene would not be very different for second-tier management institutes this year.
However, the scenario is playing out differently. Most of the top business schools have successfully wrapped up placements with secure jobs for the entire batch. After bagging 100 per cent placements, 112 students of Jamnalal Bajaj Instititute of Management Studies (JBIMS) are now waiting for their offer letters. "This year, interesting sectors like PSUs, pharma, manufacturing have visited the campus placements, besides FMCG, consulting, other traditional sectors and financial services, minus the investment banks, which have stayed away. Many students have rejected international offers for job security reasons. Some of the companies that have visited are Pfizer, Tesco, Britannia, Mahindra and Mahindra, Coca-cola, Proctor and Gamble to name a few," said a highly placed source at JBIMS.
At the Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA), 115 students have been placed with significantly higher number of companies than previous years approaching due to the current meltdown. According to a release by the institute, companies continued to be invited in a roll-on manner even after the conclusion of the final placement week. MICA saw 31 companies from fresh domains like online media and pharma making an average of 2.74 offers per company.
The SP Jain Insitute of Management Resarch saw 183 offers being made to its of batch of 164 students of the Post-Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) course by 119 companies. With the average salary offered being Rs 10 lakhs per annum, the financial sector dominated the placements with nearly 33 per cent offers, followed by traditional sectors such as FMCG, telecom and IT accounting for 29 per cent of the total offers. While consulting firms contributed to 15 per cent of the total offers made, fresh sectors like pharma, education, PSUs, regulatory bodies, market research contributed 23 per cent of the total offers.
The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) had 38 first time participating firms for its placement season out of the more than 70 companies that visited the campus. First time recruiters at the campus were Usha International, AP Moller Maersk, Fino Analytics, Darashaw, Mitsui & Co., Merck, CARE Ratings, Seimens and Bertling Global. Compare this with even the premier Indian School of Business (ISB) which had placed only 57 per cent of its students till the first week of April stating the institute will continue to "explore avenues to find the right jobs for its students." A mail to the spokesperson for updates remained unanswered.
Most of the non-IIMs, however, have seen a drop in their average salaries since last year with accepted average salaries ranging from Rs 6-10 lakhs. IIFT, for instance, has seen a drop in its average salary by 19 per cent this year. Compared to last year’s average salary package of Rs 10 lakhs, this year, the salary offered was around Rs 8 lakhs, with the highest salary offered being Rs 19 lakhs. Upholding the current trend of recruitments by PSUs, IIFT saw companies like BHEL, STC, PEC, Bank of Baroda, SAIL, IDBI Bank, NMDC, MMTC, CDC, IIFCL, ECGC hiring potential employees from its campus. According to the institute, firms covering a wide range of sectors such as marketing, corporate finance, treasury, international business, general management and consulting participated in this year’s placements.
At Management Development Institute, Gurgaon, even as the highest domestic salary saw an increase compared to last year, the average salary has seen a dip in around 10 per cent this year, compared to last year. Likewise, at the Goa Institute of Management (GIM), while the highest annual salary package saw an increase by three per cent, the average salary dropped by 16 per cent since last year. The average salary offered to GIM was Rs 6.23 lakh per annum this year, while the highest (annual) salary offered is Rs.12.43 lakh.